Programs

Adult Events and Activities

Meet at Mia

Learn more about this Meet at Mia event series centered around &#8220;Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys,&#8221; held in spring 2025.
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Public Functionary x Meet at Mia: “Giants”

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Connect, create, kick back! Meet at Mia is a series of free Thursday evening events for adults. Get to know us—and each other—with live music, art making, special programs, and unique food and drink (for purchase). No registration or secret handshake required.
Meet at Mia ranges from casual open studios to museum-wide art parties. Find what suits you on the event pages below.
<h2>Spring Programs</h2>
May 15 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia#may15">Living Legacies</a> 
May 22 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia#may22">Human Nature</a>
<h2>Summer Series</h2>
<h3>June Programs</h3>
June 12 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#june12">Summer Kickoff</a> 
June 19 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#june19">Juneteenth</a> 
June 26 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#june26">Pride in Concert</a>
<h3><a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#july">July Programs</a></h3>
July 10 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#july10">Future Giants</a> 
July 17 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#july17">Dog Day</a> 
July 24 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#july24">Hands On</a>
<h3><a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#august">August Programs</a></h3>
August 7  <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#august7">Pop/Rocks</a> 
August 14 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#august14">Movie in the Park: Mona Lisa Smile</a> 
August 21 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#august21">Not the Fair</a> 
August 28 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#august28">À la mode</a>
<h3><a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#september">September Programs</a></h3>
September 11 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#sept11">Bike Night</a> 
September 18 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#sept18">Movie in the Park: Selena</a> 
September 25 <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/event/meet-at-mia-summer-series-2025#sept25">Fall Equinox</a>

<h2 class="border-top-3"><a style="color: black;" href="https://new.artsmia.org/programs/adult-events-and-activities"> Adult Events and Activities 
</a></h2>

The Object LIVE! Presented by Ameriprise Financial

Meet at Mia: Summer Series 2025

Meet at Mia’s Summer Series is back! Join us for near-weekly programs in Target Park (weather permitting). Enjoy another summer of live performances, food trucks, art making, and more. Bring your best blanket, and we’ll see you on the lawn!
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<h2 id="june">June Programs</h2>
June 12 Summer Kickoff 
Start the summer with a performance from MAKR AN ERIS, the newest project by Sophia Eris and Mark McGee. Make art inspired by the “Hokusai | Monet” exhibition: floral printed bandanas with Textile Center and oil masterpieces with Sarah Nicole. 
LISTEN to MAKR AN ERIS, 6:30 p.m. 
PRINT with Textile Center 
COLOR with Sarah Nicole 
EAT Eggroll Queen, 5–9 p.m. 
VISIT “<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/hokusai-monet">Hokusai | Monet</a>&#8221;
June 19 Juneteenth 
Celebrate Juneteenth with Black creatives from the Twin Cities and beyond. LAAMAR curates a lineup of performers while Roho Collective provides family-friendly rock painting and community quilting. Enjoy food from West Indies Soul Food. 
LISTEN to LAAMAR and special guests, 6 p.m. 
PLAY with Roho Collective 
EAT West Indies Soul Food, 6–8 p.m. 
VISIT “<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/giants">Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys</a>” (exhibition entry is free for members; <a href="https://tickets.artsmia.org/events/b1f97274-08d7-6122-801b-4182fe5d7c54">become a member</a> for free)
June 26 Pride in Concert 
Brat Summer is SO 2024; 2025 is Bratpunk summer. Celebrate Pride with a live performance by Minneapolis-based trio VIAL. Make jewelry with Elyse Lodermeier, and join a weaving social with Textile Center. Enjoy food from ParraLily. Snag this year’s T-shirt design while supplies last. 
ROCK with VIAL, 6:30 p.m. 
WEAVE with Textile Center 
SPARKLE with Elyse Lodermeier 
EAT ParraLily, 6–8 p.m. 
VISIT “<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/giants">Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys</a>&#8221; (tickets required)
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<h2 id="july">July Programs</h2>
July 10 Future Giants 
Give a Giant farewell to the blockbuster exhibition, “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys.” See the artwork off, then make your own with Burn Something Collective. MMYYKK provides the soundtrack. 
LISTEN to MMYYKK, 6 p.m. 
MAKE with Burn Something Collective 
EAT Brick Oven Bus, 6–8 p.m. 
VISIT “<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/giants">Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys</a>” (tickets required)
July 17 Dog Day 
Dogs can’t come into the museum, but they’re always welcome in our courtyard—as long as you pick up after them! Put your dog’s face on a bandana and fight over who’s going to wear it first. Make a metal mutt with WOW Mobile Metal Lab. Trivia Mafia quizzes visitors to find the true pup professionals. And what’s Dog Day without pup cups from MN Nice Cream? 
LISTEN to Laura Hugo, 6:30 p.m. 
MAKE with Ivonne Yáñez 
POUR with WOW Mobile Metal 
GUESS with Trivia Mafia, 7 p.m. 
EAT MN Nice Cream, 6–8 p.m. 
TOUR Dogs in Mia’s collection, 7 p.m.
July 24 Hands On 
Check out Mia’s new exhibition, “Annotations,” featuring photographs in Mia’s collection that have been altered by the artist in some way. Make your mark on a found photo with paint and embroidery. Enjoy music from Kiss the Tiger and DJ Diane Miller. 
ROCK with Kiss the Tiger, 6 p.m. 
JAM with DJ Diane Miller 
CREATE with Mia Teaching Artists 
EAT Eggroll Queen, 5–9 p.m. 
VISIT “<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/annotations">Annotations</a>”
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<h2 id="august">August Programs</h2>
August 7 Pop/Rocks 
Celebrate the late Andy Warhol’s 97th birthday by immersing yourself in pop and rock. DJ Diane Miller takes us back in time through music. Visit Mia’s Print Study Room to see Warhol’s work up close, then make your own prints with Highpoint. Trivia Mafia quizzes you on all things pop culture. 
DANCE with DJ Diane Miller 
PRINT with Highpoint Center for Printmaking 
PLAY Trivia Mafia, 7 p.m. 
EAT Brick Oven Bus, 6–8 p.m. 
VISIT <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/art-artists/curatorial-departments/prints-and-drawings/the-herschel-v-jones-print-study-room">Print Study Room</a>, 5–7 p.m.
August 14 Movie in the Park: Mona Lisa Smile 
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa may be a world away, but Julia Roberts in Mona Lisa Smile is in our backyard! In the 1950s, a progressive Wellesley art professor teaches her female students that there&#8217;s more to life than marriage. Begin the night making geometric canvas flags with Sarah Nicole before the film starts at sunset. 
LISTEN to DJ Talia Knight 
WATCH Mona Lisa Smile, sunset (between 8:30 and 9 p.m.) 
MAKE with Sarah Nicole 
EAT Las Twins, 6–8 p.m. 
VISIT Global Contemporary art: galleries 260, 280, and 370
August 21 Not the Fair 
For the Minnesotans who want a taste of the State Fair without the difficult parking (or the crowd of 100,000 people). Skip the agriculture center and make a felted llama with Textile Center. WOW Mobile Metal Lab pours fair-themed objects while You Oughta Know provides all the ’90s themed tunes. 
LISTEN to You Oughta Know, 6 p.m. 
CREATE with Textile Center 
POUR with WOW Mobile Metal Lab 
EAT Just in Time Concessions, 6–8 p.m. 
TOUR Fair-themed works in Mia’s collection, 7 p.m.
August 28 À la mode 
Like, the literal definition—“in the current fashion.” Enjoy the contemporary! Check out Mia’s newly rotated Global Contemporary gallery, and try modern techniques in a collaborative coloring wall with Sarah Nicole. Anna Devine provides the evening’s tunes while El Jefe dishes up the food. Fine, we’ll add ice cream. MN Nice Cream joins us from 6 to 8 p.m. 
LISTEN to Anna Devine, 6:30 p.m. 
CREATE with Sarah Nicole 
EAT El Jefe, 5–9 p.m. 
FREEZE with MN Nice Cream, 6–8 p.m. 
VISIT Global Contemporary gallery, G370
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<h2 id="september">September Programs</h2>
September 11 Bike Night 
Bike Night is back! Connect with the Twin Cities biking community through bike rides, bike safety checks, and bike bingo. Take a photo with your fixie in Mia’s photo booth. Enjoy giveaways from partner Perennial Cycle. Aspire Artisan Folk School highlights a new exhibition with wooden wall art. 
GROOVE with Gozie Ukaga, 6:30 p.m. 
CREATE with Aspire Artisan Folk School 
EAT Pizza Karma, 5–8 p.m. 
VISIT Exhibition announcement coming soon!
September 18 Movie in the Park: Selena 
Kick off Hispanic Heritage Month with a screening of Selena at sunset. Enjoy food and drink from El Jefe while you stitch milagros (or miracles) with Textile Center for luck. 
WATCH Selena, sunset (between 8 and 8:30 p.m.) 
CREATE with Textile Center 
EAT El Jefe, 5–9 p.m. 
VISIT Latin American Art, G275
September 25 Fall Equinox 
Summer comes to an end and we usher in the fall equinox. Mike Kota is the cherry on top of our summer concerts, performing a solo show, while Mia teaching artists lead joyfully strange art making. 
JAM with Mike Kota, 6:30 p.m. 
MAKE with Mia teaching artists 
EAT Pizza Karma, 5–8 p.m. 
VISIT “<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/weirdening-of-the-renaissance">Weirdening of the Renaissance</a>”

Meet at Mia: Movie in the Park

Mia’s award-winning podcast, <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/the-object-podcast">The Object</a>, tells the surprising, true stories behind the art and artists in the collection. Called “playful, thoughtful, and elegant” and “on par with This American Life” by critics, it’s the museum as you’ve never heard it before. The Object LIVE! is a new series of live taping events—everything listeners love about the podcast brought to life on stage.
May 11, 2025 
This live taping of Mia’s award-winning podcast The Object, hosted by Tim Gihring, features special guest Dessa, fun quizzes and prizes, curator conversation, and of course storytelling. All about humor in art, surrealism, and Mia’s beloved Aphrodisiac Telephone by Salvador Dalí—on his 121st birthday! It’s “Your Lobster is Ringing!” Take the call, bring your mother (it’s Mother’s Day, folks!) and join us for an afternoon to remember.
Singer, rapper, and writer Dessa has made a career of bucking genres and defying expectations, performing both at Lollapalooza and with the Minnesota Orchestra, writing for the New York Times and, most recently, publishing a cocktail book of essays and recipes based on her music. She&#8217;s lectured on art and philosophy at universities and hosted a BBC radio show on the science of being human. NPR’s All Songs Considered has called her “a national treasure” of “incredible gravitas and presence and humanity.”
This event has reached capacity.

Connect, create, kick back! Meet at Mia is a series of free Thursday evening events for adults. Get to know us—and each other—with live music, art making, special programs, and unique food and drink (for purchase). No registration or secret handshake required.
<hr />
May 15 Living Legacies 
The Kondō family is made up of ceramicists. One member, Takahiro Kondō (born 1958), emerged as the family’s great innovator by developing a secret technique of “silver mist,” as seen in one of Mia’s <a href="https://collections.artsmia.org/art/119518/reduction-i-kondo-takahiro">most memorable sculptures</a>. Tonight, join Northern Clay Center to create your own relief tile showing texture and movement. Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Month with a special performance by Cantus in Mia’s Asia galleries, and check out “<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/transcendent-clay-the-kondo-familys-path-of-porcelain-innovations">Transcendent Clay: The Kondō Family’s Path of Porcelain Innovations</a>.”
Art Making with Northern Clay Center, 5-8:30 p.m. 
Performance by Cantus, 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. 
Friends Lecture with Joe Earle, 6 p.m., <a href="https://tickets.artsmia.org/events/01963595-4352-e561-c796-cc584da965a4">free ticket required</a> 
Food Truck Hana Bistro, 5&#8211;8 p.m.
May 22 Human Nature 
May is American Indian Month in Minnesota. Explore “<a href="https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/mary-sully-native-modern">Mary Sully: Native Modern</a>,” then make your own mini mural alongside artist, tattooer, and business owner Caitlin Newago in an open studio. Enjoy screenings of Gather, an intimate portrait of the growing movement among Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political, and cultural identities through food.
Art Making with Caitlin Newago 
Film Screenings Gather (74 min), 6:30 p.m., <a href="https://tickets.artsmia.org/events/0196878b-f6e2-1bc8-9814-0c5f39182227">free ticket required</a> 
Visit &#8220;Mary Sully: Native Modern&#8221;

Meet at Mia: Bike Night

Events

Presented by
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“Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” is a groundbreaking exhibition that marks the first major showcase of the Dean Collection, owned by renowned musicians and cultural icons Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and Alicia Keys.
Organized by the Brooklyn Museum, “Giants” highlights nearly 100 significant works by Black diasporic artists, including Gordon Parks, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lorna Simpson, Amy Sherald, and more. The exhibition reflects the Deans&#8217; passion for supporting established and emerging artists while fostering important dialogues about art, culture, and identity.
“Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” is organized by Kimberli Gant, Curator, Modern and Contemporary Art, and Indira A. Abiskaroon, Curatorial Assistant, Modern and Contemporary Art, Brooklyn Museum.
<a style="color: black;" href="https://tickets.artsmia.org/events/01934052-e7dc-337b-b9f3-e4216feb4d0e"><button class="background-black">Buy Tickets to Giants</button></a> 
For school and university group tours of &#8220;Giants,&#8221; please submit a <a href="https://form.asana.com/?k=tqLIfnaCtjGam1FAAZ24Nw&amp;d=67236691525505">tour request form</a>.
See the Deans (Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys), &#8220;Giants,&#8221; and Mia on <a href="https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/gma3/video/alicia-keys-swizz-beatz-tour-art-world-120416625" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Good Morning America</a>.
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Watch a conversation with the Deans (Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys) and Kimberli Gant, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum, for an insider’s look into “Giants.” They explore the origins of the show, their collaborations with artists, and the powerful works that bring the exhibition to life.
<a style="color: black;" href="https://vimeo.com/showcase/2905962/video/1064443689" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><button class="background-black">Watch Video</button></a>

The Deans (Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys), Kimberli Gant, and “Giants”

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https://vimeo.com/showcase/2905962/video/1064443689

Deborah Roberts is a mixed-media artist celebrated for her artworks that explore topics of Black childhood. This conversation provides a unique chance to hear Roberts share her artistic journey, techniques, and the motivations behind her powerful work.
<a style="color: black;" href="https://vimeo.com/showcase/2905962/video/1059475860" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><button class="background-black">Watch Video</button></a>

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https://vimeo.com/showcase/2905962/video/1059475860

Artist and educator Nick Cave creates spaces of memorial by combining found historical objects with contemporary dialogues on gun violence and death. His renowned Soundsuits are sculptural responses to the anxiety, trauma, and loss caused by gun violence, while also holding space for hope, renewal, and healing. Cave shares deeper insights into his practice and the impact of his work within and beyond the spaces of the museum.
<a style="color: black;" href="https://vimeo.com/1076755666" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><button class="background-black">Watch Video</button></a>

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Meleko Mokgosi is an artist, associate professor, and co-director of graduate studies at the Yale School of Art, as well as the co-director of the Interdisciplinary Art and Theory Program in New York City. He&#8217;s renowned for his large-scale works that engage history painting and cinematic tropes to uncover notions of colonialism, democracy, and liberation across African history.
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Use this guide in your classroom before visiting the museum or in the galleries during a self-guided visit. It highlights selected artworks that illustrate each of the exhibition’s main themes.
<a href="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/05173400/LIN252699_Giants_TeachersGuide-V5.pdf"><button class="background-black" style="margin-bottom: 1rem;">Download Guide</button></a>

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Explore the exhibition together by looking, thinking, and discussing artworks and ideas. Use the questions in this guide to inspire conversation—pick and choose which ones are right for you.
<a href="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/06145538/LIN252811_Giants-ExhibitionGuide_Kid_MOBILE_V2.pdf"><button class="background-black" style="margin-bottom: 1rem;">Download Guide</button></a>

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This guide is a tool to help teenagers explore the exhibition. Experience each room of the exhibition with the corresponding portion of the guide.
<a href="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/06145653/LIN252811_Giants-ExhibitionGuide_Teen_Mobile_V2.pdf"><button class="background-black" style="margin-bottom: 1rem;">Download Guide</button></a>

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This guide is designed for adults to use as they explore the exhibition. It offers suggestions, prompts, and important context that may provide useful information as you experience this special exhibition.
<a href="https://images.artsmia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/06145326/LIN252811_Giants-ExhibitionGuide_Adult_MOBILE_V1.pdf"><button class="background-black" style="margin-bottom: 1rem;">Download Guide</button></a>

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Listen to the soundtrack playing in the exhibition.
<a style="color: black;" href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5dSEza6GrXKRBxizFlOT0g?si=etnK0m7FRwakpRjIq82RrA&amp;nd=1&amp;dlsi=3fa19625c8d14a58" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><button class="background-black">Listen to Playlist</button></a>

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https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5dSEza6GrXKRBxizFlOT0g?si=etnK0m7FRwakpRjIq82RrA&nd=1&dlsi=3fa19625c8d14a58

Hear the songs curated by DJ Runna for the exhibition&#8217;s opening party at Mia.
<a style="color: black;" href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5Guld7dBYa82qe6GyoZtup?si=NSgWoc_xR0u_o58RPUw1bw" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><button class="background-black">Listen to Playlist</button></a>

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Related Events

Color photo of an African American woman with an afro wearing a beaded halter top set against a blue background

Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys

Spanning almost a century of creativity, &#8220;Transcendent Clay&#8221; offers a panoramic look at the achievements of the Kondō family of ceramicists based in Kyoto, Japan. The legacy of porcelain-making began with Kondō Yūzō (1902–1985) in the 1930s and continued with his sons Yutaka (1932–1983) and Hiroshi (1936–2012), who broke free to pursue original, individual expressions. Ultimately it was the grandson Takahiro (born 1958) who emerged as the family’s greatest innovator by developing the secret technique of applying a “silver mist” (gintekisai) of metallic droplets to his modern forms.
This exhibition brings together a wide range of works including freehand-painted vases, pure-white jars, and Takahiro’s dramatic shapes and textures, which he describes as “water born from fire.” Most of the works are from the collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz, long-time supporters of Mia.

porcelain statue of a head and top of the torso with arms at side with blue and green underglazes and "silver mist" overglaze

Transcendent Clay: The Kondō Family’s Path of Porcelain Innovations

Born on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota, Mary Sully was a reclusive artist who, between the 1920s and 1940s, created highly distinctive works informed by her Native American and European ancestry. This first solo exhibition of Sully&#8217;s groundbreaking production highlights recent Mia acquisitions, works that complicate traditional notions of Native American and modern art.
Major support for Mia’s presentation provided by Lorraine R Hart.

Detailed view of Mary Sully's Spring artwork, which shows a repeated pattern of green, red, and beige shapes

Mary Sully: Native Modern

In 1897, the French painter Claude Monet made four paintings of the chrysanthemums in his garden in Giverny, capturing them not in a vase but en plein air—painting the flowers as they grew. He had been an avid collector of Japanese prints since the 1870s, and his unexpected, expressive use of space in this experiment recalls the Large Flowers series of prints made between 1833 and 1834 by Katsushika Hokusai. This exhibition brings the Large Flowers and Chrysanthemums series into conversation, exploring the symbiotic artistic connections between Japan and France in the 19th century.

Drawing of pink, peach, and light red chrysanthemums and a horsefly by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai

74.1.210 Hokusai | Monet

Photography’s mechanical origins have sometimes relegated the medium to that of a tool. The impulse to alter, embellish, and add soon became standard photographic practice. Photographers added colored pigment to the metal surfaces of early daguerreotypes, painted paper photographs, and wrote text directly on their prints and negatives. In sum, they annotated their photographs.
Drawing mostly from Mia’s collection, “Annotations” considers an array of hand-applied interventions on and within photographs, across the medium’s history and through different processes. The photographers’ additive gestures bring viewers closer to a photograph’s role as an object made at a specific time and by a particular individual.

mottled and patchy aerial view of a colorful cityscape that is intersected by a river, and is rendered in blue, white, yellow, and pink pigments with a white sky

Annotations

In the early days of the Renaissance, artists emphasized order. Inspired by ancient Roman architecture and sculpture, they created structured compositions and statuesque figures that evoked lofty, rational thought. However, new ideas began to emerge. In 1506, the excavation of the ancient Laocoön sculpture, depicting the Trojan priest and his sons writhing as they&#8217;re attacked by sea serpents, released Renaissance figures from static poses. Artists began to manipulate the science of perspective and often dropped the idea of images representing the world as seen through a window. Earthy and outlandish thought flourished. Many images became just plain weird. With their creativity unleashed, artists left to us the joy of strangeness.
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Pencil sketch of four muscular naked men on top of each others shoulders against a beige background

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